We have a very promising start.

If I have any luck, I shall be able to collect all the evidence I want in about a week.

But there is an element of chance in some of it which prevents me from giving a date.

And it is just possible that I may have started on a false track.

But that I shall be able to tell you better in a day or two." "And I suppose," I said gloomily, "I shall be out of the hunt altogether ?" "Not at all," he replied.